WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ Sword Master of the Fallen Kingdom

Chapter 81

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Prey and Hunter (4)

Pure white Sword Light carved through the air. Each time Kyle swung his sword, the barbarians blocking his path fell in heaps.

They could not even put up a proper resistance. Not one of them managed to stop his blade. A single, fluid Sword Path smoothly cut down everything in his way. Severed arms and legs flew in every direction, and Kyle burst through fountains of red blood, charging straight toward the man.

How?

The man shoved the question from his mind. Then he released the bowstring with his right hand. A clear sky-blue glow gathered around the arrowhead. The arrow became a streak of blue and tore through the air, shooting straight at Kyle as he rode toward him.

Kyle had already closed in. The arrow, which had pierced to within a hair's breadth of his chest, struck a flash of pure white Sword Light and bounced away uselessly. The man reflexively drew the curved sword at his waist. A clear ring of steel echoed out, and at the same time, blue Sword Aura settled over the silver blade.

The two horses crossed in an instant.

Kaaang!

A sharp metallic sound rang out. White light and blue light passed each other. The man felt a burning pain in his side, and his vision flipped over. In the upside-down world, his beloved horse was already spilling its entrails as it crashed to the ground.

“Captain!”

“He is only one man! Aim for his neck!”

Shouts echoed from every direction. The other surviving barbarians rushed at Kyle again. The clatter of hooves tangled dizzily with their battle cries. It did not last long. Each time a scream rang out, the noise gradually died away.

How much time had passed?

When the man came to his senses, he could no longer hear any screams. The same went for breathing. The only thing reaching his ears was a single rough breath that had to be his own.

The man clenched his teeth and half-raised himself, using the curved sword in his hand as a brace. Drops of blood pattered down by his feet. The cut in his side had dug deep beneath his skin. Through terrible agony, the man barely lifted his head and gave a hollow laugh.

Everywhere around him had turned into a sea of blood. Severed limbs and corpses lay scattered all over the ground. The stench of blood filled the air.

Neeeigh!

That was when the horse Kyle had been riding reared up in panic. Kyle brought down his sword, its Sword Aura still burning, cut off the horse's neck, and landed lightly on the ground.

In the middle of the now-quiet forest, he turned his gaze forward and saw the man staring at him with empty eyes. Kyle quickly scattered the white Sword Aura lingering over his blade. When he glanced at the ring on the middle finger of his left hand, the mana that had already been below thirty percent had fallen a little more.

I tried to conserve it as much as I could, but I guess it couldn't be helped.

Still, it was better than before. Ever since he learned his personal magic, Kyle felt that his mana control had grown even more precise and efficient. Besides, he had more than enough top-grade Magicite to spare.

“To lose... to just one man... the Krakes Tribe's cavalry unit...”

The man muttered to himself. Forcing his shaking legs to hold, he opened his mouth again.

“You. What is your name?”

“I have no name to give a barbarian.”

Kyle spun his sword once. Sunset light slipped between the branches, and the star iron blade gleamed orange-red. The pale-faced man bit his lip. He spat out his words as if coughing blood.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Do I need to?”

“I am the Third Rider of Zakan, the great Great Chieftain. I am the Fourth Foot of the Krakes Tribe. The warriors you killed were children of Tervan's mountains.”

“So?”

“Even if you kill me, you people will not leave this place alive. You will have to bear the wrath of Great Chieftain Zakan.”

Kyle let out a faint laugh. There was no value in talking any further. It only felt tiresome. They would never be able to find every corpse buried across these vast highlands anyway.

They attacked first, yet now that they were about to die, they regretted it?

Bluntly speaking, Kyle had avoided harm because he was Kyle. If it had been any other mercenaries or a small trading convoy, they would have been wiped out by the lake earlier. That was how fierce the barbarians' arrows were. The mobility of the mounted ones was just as dangerous. He had to finish this cleanly here, if only to avoid leaving trouble behind. He had no intention of dragging bothersome flies around behind him.

Kyle slightly twisted the sword hanging downward. At the same time, he moved his left foot a little forward. The man's expression hardened. He lowered the left hand that had been pressing against his side and raised the curved sword in his right hand.

A bird cried briefly among the quiet conifers. Faint water sounds came from below the sloping forest. Kyle focused on his breathing, on each inhale and exhale. He raised all his senses, including the five basic ones. Everything grew clear enough to grasp.

Paak!

Kyle was the first to shoot forward. His black cloak whipped violently. The star iron caught the sunset and turned orange-red. Over it, the extinguished Sword Aura blazed bright once more.

The man stared hard at Kyle as he charged in and raised the curved sword in his hand. A sharp sky-blue light surged along the long, silver, curved blade. Just as the man tried to receive Kyle's sword strike, his eyes widened. The pure white sword coming down was far faster than he had expected. So was the power packed inside it.

Kiiiiik.

The moment blade met blade, the white sword slid along the man's curved sword as if forcing it aside. The man was already mortally wounded, and his stance collapsed with ease. As his sword was pushed away, his upper body opened wide.

“You...!”

The man could not finish whatever he had tried to say. Kyle's sword slipped swiftly into the opening. The white blade pushed away the blue blade and rose again from below. The man could not react.

Crunch!

Kyle's sword dug into his unarmored side and smashed through his ribs. Then it surged all the way up past his shoulder. A beat later, crimson blood sprayed into the air. The man's body crumpled helplessly.

***

“Miss! Two more by the stream!”

Jade shouted. Elysia turned her head and immediately fired a blade of wind.

Puhwak!

One barbarian who had been drawing his bowstring spilled blood and collapsed helplessly to the ground. The horse he had been riding was no exception. Another barbarian noticed Elysia's magic and pulled back one step, only to become tangled with the horse and corpse shoved backward. He fell beside the small stream stained red.

“One more on the right!”

Jade snapped the reins and raised his voice again. Elysia calmly followed Jade's information and reduced the number of barbarians surrounding both sides of the carriage one by one.

One spell for one barbarian. Some quick-witted barbarians twisted their course now and then to avoid Elysia's magic, but it did not mean much. As the barbarians adapted to her spells, Elysia deliberately set her gaze and hand gestures out of rhythm.

Incantationless Magic as natural as breathing, paired with a terrifying ability to adapt on the fly.

Jade clicked his tongue without realizing it.

I thought she wouldn't be ordinary, but I didn't know it would be to this extent.

He had known from their first meeting that Elysia's status was far from common. High nobles had accents and bearing that could not be hidden.

But magical talent was a different matter. When he heard that Elysia had hired Kyle as an escort, Jade had thought she was simply some sheltered noble lady who knew nothing of the world. He had been wrong. She was a mage of incredible skill. She was also a natural mercenary with no aversion to killing.

Killing someone was never easy.

Jade, who had been driving the horses without pause, glanced back. Beyond the partition, Elysia had leaned her head toward the driver's seat and was scanning the surroundings with sharp eyes.

He still could not see well inside the hood of the robe she had pulled down low.

But the features he glimpsed looked not only beautiful, but also quite young. Had she only just turned twenty?

Come to think of it, didn't Kyle call her Elysia earlier?

He felt like there was someone with that name among the Imperial family. That, and the talk about wyvern knights and whatnot last time.

Well, whatever. Their business is none of mine.

The two steadily drove the carriage while cutting down the number of barbarians chasing after them. As time passed, the shouts and hoofbeats coming from every direction dwindled.

“Damn.”

He let out that small sigh around then. The two horses, panting and snorting, could no longer run and were slowing down. Unlike the barbarians' horses, they had been pulling the carriage nonstop since early morning, so it was only natural. Jade lightly shook the reins and brought the gradually slowing carriage to a stop.

“What happened all of a sudden? The carriage...”

“The horses are exhausted. This is their real limit.”

Jade answered Elysia's question as if it were nothing. The horses could no longer move and were breathing roughly.

“They held out a long time. Looks like we need to clean up the ones following us.”

“Here?”

“Yeah, here.”

He hopped down from the driver's seat. Elysia was briefly confused by his sudden action, then looked behind them. The remaining barbarians had seen the carriage stop and were rushing in like mad.

“Miss, just sit back and watch.”

“You are doing it alone?”

“Yeah. At this point, there's no need for both of us to step in. Their numbers have gone down a lot.”

Jade said it with a grin. Right on time, the barbarians reached the carriage and were almost on top of them.

“I'll take it from here.”

His steps were leisurely, as if he had come out for a stroll. The barbarians all shouted at once and raised their weapons.

Jade's upper body sank slightly.

Pale yellow Sword Aura bloomed over his bloodstained sword.

Puhwaak!

The sword wrapped in Sword Aura moved forward. Sword Light passed in a flash.

One barbarian who had been charging in with great force sprayed blood from his whole body and slammed down beside the carriage.

Elysia's eyes widened as she watched. The second and third barbarians could not react to Jade's sword either and dropped like scarecrows. It was extremely fast. There was nothing wasted.

Jade's sword seemed to be moving slowly, but in the span of a single blink, it had already dug into the enemies' vital points.

So this is the true skill of a Gold-rank Mercenary.

She had thought he was no ordinary man when he killed the ones who approached too closely with a single strike from the driver's seat, but seeing the skill of a truly top-class Gold-rank Mercenary in person was on a different level. When the final, fifth barbarian collapsed onto the corpses of the four already dead men, Jade brushed up his hair and muttered as if grumbling.

“Riding horses for no reason. What a pain.”

Jade shook his sword a couple of times as if flicking off filth. The Sword Aura rising over the blade slowly melted away.

“Is it over?” Elysia asked.

After briefly looking around, Jade said, “Probably? The number of barbarians chasing us definitely dropped once Kyle split off. Looks like he's working pretty hard.”

“That means just as many barbarians went after Kyle, does it not?”

“Probably. But like I said earlier, that's needless worry. That guy will be happy to swing his sword more. No, maybe he doesn't even need to. He might be better with magic than with a sword.”

Jade sheathed his sword and climbed back onto the driver's seat. The horses, which had been breathing roughly a moment ago, had calmed somewhat after their short rest.

The two got into the carriage and began going back up the road they had taken so far. Corpses of barbarians and dead horses killed by Elysia's magic and Jade's sword lay scattered here and there.

Moving at a moderate pace, Jade turned toward the sloped conifer forest where Kyle had disappeared. The carriage wheels rattled over the rough ground. It did not take long before they found a place stained with blood and lined with corpses. In the middle of it, Kyle, having just finished the fight, was shaking blood from his sword.

Jade stopped the carriage, got down from the driver's seat, and shouted.

“Kyle!”

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